The present invention generally relates to electrochemical batteries that include microprocessors. More particularly, the present invention relates to batteries including a computer system that allows the battery to communicate battery-related information across a network.
There are electrochemical batteries that are typically rechargeable nickel-cadmium or lithium-ion based and which include microprocessors or microcontrollers as a component, and consequently are often referred to as xe2x80x9csmartxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cintelligentxe2x80x9d batteries. The smart batteries however only communicate data in an electronic format to other devices in the native system, such as a cellular telephone, that the battery powers, and the data only travels across the communication bus or other hardwired data line to the internal devices of the native system. Smart batteries therefore do not typically communicate with any external devices not hardwired with the native system.
In designing and improving batteries, it is desirous to gather as much operational data about battery performance during customer usage. In essence, learning about how the battery is used and abused by the customer, and how the battery fails are essential elements in producing optimal and effective product designs. Although, with existing smart batteries, once the battery is shipped from the manufacturer, there is no ability to accurately gather data from the battery. Consequently, the manufacturer can only estimate the performance of the battery based upon internal testing and assumptions about consumer usage, and these estimates can be greatly in error. The estimated life of a battery is especially erroneous for those consumers who use the battery in much more strenuous manner than the manufacturer might anticipate.
The inability for the manufacturer to gather data about the battery is also a disadvantage to the consumer. Both the manufacturer and the consumer have no way to determine the condition of the battery while in use by the consumer. Without the data on the condition of the battery, one is not able to predict imminent failure or detect marginal operation of the battery. Moreover, without an avenue of communication from the manufacturer to the battery, the manufacturer has no way to provide the battery with remote software updates, enhancements, or bug-fixes without physically returning the battery to the manufacturer for modification.
Accordingly, existing intelligent batteries lack the ability to communicate important data about the condition of the battery which prevents the user from accurately knowing the condition of the battery. Moreover, valuable operational data about batteries operating in the marketplace is never captured. It is thus to the provision of such an intelligent battery having a communication interface that can communicate battery-related data to other devices across a network, such as the Internet, that the present invention is primarily directed.